That and Savannah.
Her gaze fell again on the bed, and she jerked herself away and headed for the stairs that led down to the courtyard, her stride brisk and purposeful.
She was feeling unsettled, skittish. The evening at Frenchie's had rattled her, from her encounter with Baldwin to Savannah 's fight to Jack's tirade to the role she had agreed to play for the Delahoussayes. Truth to tell, that probably had her the most on edge. Tomorrow she would have to go down to the courthouse and see about solving the problem of Jimmy Lee Baldwin. She would have to go to work as if she had never stopped, as if she hadn't left her last job in disgrace. She would go into the halls of justice and face the secretaries, the clerk of court, the judge, other attorneys, Stephen Danjermond.
She had been mulling over that prospect as she walked home from Frenchie's. With Jack nowhere to be found, and the last rays of day still seeping through the gloom of evening, she had set off for Belle Rivière on foot, hoping to walk off some of the anxiety and self-doubt. But after only two blocks, a bottle green Jaguar pulled alongside the curb, its passenger window sliding down with a hiss.
"Might I offer you a ride, Laurel?" Stephen Danjermond leaned across the soft gray leather seats of the car and stared up at her, his green eyes glowing like jewels in the waning light. He smiled, that handsome, perfectly symmetrical smile, tinting it with apology. "As much as I enjoy bragging about our diminished crime rate in Partout Parish, I hate to see a lady take chances."
"I could be taking a chance with you, for all I know," Laurel said evenly, keeping her fists tucked in the deep pockets of her baggy shorts.
Danjermond regarded her with a touch of disappointment, a touch of amusement. "I think you know me better than that, Laurel."
She looked at him blankly, trying to cover her confusion. They had only just met, but somehow she knew if she pointed that out to him, he would only be more amused. She felt as if he were a step ahead of her in time, that she was coming into a play already in progress and missing her cue. If he could rattle her this much with a simple conversation, he had to be hell on wheels in a cross-examination. A man destined for great things, Stephen Danjermond.
She pulled open the door of the Jag and sank down into the butter-soft seat. "I don't know you at all, Mr. Danjermond," she murmured, her tone as cryptic as his expression.
"I intend to remedy that situation."
He let the car ease along the deserted street, silent for a moment, the Jag as quiet as a soundproof booth. He had shed his tailored suit for a knit shirt the color of jade and a pair of tan chinos, but he still looked immaculate, perfectly pressed.
"Dinner with your parents was an interesting occasion," he said.
"They're not my parents," Laurel blurted automatically, a hot flush stinging her cheeks as he looked at her with one dark brow raised in question. "What I mean to say is, Ross Leighton isn't my father. My father passed away when I was small."
"Yes, I know. Killed, wasn't he?"
"An accident in the cane fields."
"You were close to him." He stated it as a fact, not a question. Laurel said nothing, wondering how he knew, wondering what Vivian might have told him. Wondering if he was privy to Vivian's plans for the two of them.
He shot her another steady look. "Your aversion to Ross," he explained. "I suspect you never accepted his taking your father's place. A child loses a beloved parent, resentment toward the usurper is natural. Though I should think you would have gotten over it by now. Perhaps there's something more to it?"
The answer was none of his business, but Laurel refrained from saying so. Her skills were rusty, but the instincts were still there. Danjermond's were honed to perfection. He didn't have conversations, he had verbal chess matches. He was never off duty. Every exchange was an opportunity to exercise his mind, sharpen his battle skills. She knew; she had been there. She had been that sharp, that focused. She knew an answer to this question would put her in check.
"I'm sorry about the scene my sister caused," she said casually. " Savannah does love to be dramatic."
"Why are you sorry?" He stopped the Jag for the red light at Jackson and pinned her with a look. "You aren't the one who caused the commotion. You have no control over your sister's actions, do you, Laurel?"
No. But she wanted to have. She wanted control. She wanted the components of her world to fit neatly into place. No messes, no unpleasant surprises.
Danjermond's gaze held fast on her. "Are you your sister's keeper?"
She shook off the thoughts and kicked herself mentally for not seeing the potential hazards of this subject she had diverted them onto. "Of course not. Savannah does as she pleases. I know she won't apologize for disrupting Vivian's gathering, so I will. I was merely taking up the gauntlet for etiquette."
"Ah," he smiled, looking out over the hood of the car, "the gauntlet. You might have been a knight of the Round Table in a past life, Laurel. Galahad the Good, adhering to your strict code of honor."
He seemed amused, and it irritated her. Did he think he was too urbane, too sophisticated for the quaint, provincial ways of Bayou Breaux-he the privileged son of old New Orleans money?
"Hospitality is the Southern way. I'm sure you were raised to have better manners than to, say, interrogate a guest," she said sweetly, shifting to the offensive.
He looked surprised and pleased at her parry. "Was I interrogating you? I thought we were getting acquainted."
"Getting acquainted is generally a reciprocal process. You haven't told me anything about yourself."
"I'm sorry." He sent her a dazzling smile that had doubtless knocked more than one simple belle off her feet. Laurel reminded herself she was no simple belle, had never been. "I'm afraid I find you such an interesting and enchanting creature, I lost my head."
The sincerity in his voice was too smooth, too polished to be real. Laurel had the unnerving feeling that nothing on this earth could rattle Stephen Danjermond. There was that sense of calm around him, in his eyes, in the core of him. She wondered if anything could ever penetrate it.
"False flattery will get you nowhere, Mr. Danjermond," she said, glancing away from him to her reflection in the mirror on the visor. "I hardly look enchanting tonight."
"Fishing for a compliment, Laurel?"
"Stating a fact. I have no use for compliments."
He turned in at the drive to the carriage house that served as Belle Rivière's garage and let the Jag idle in park. "Practicality and idealism," he said, turning toward her, sliding his arm casually along the back of the seat. "An intriguing mix. Fascinating."
Laurel 's fingers curled over the door handle as he studied her with those steady, peridot eyes. "I'm so glad I could amuse you," she said, her tone as dry as a good martini.
Danjermond shook his head. "Not amuse, Laurel. Challenge. You're a challenge."
"You make me feel like a Rubik's Cube."
He laughed at that, but his enjoyment of her spunk was cut short as his pager went off. "Ah, well, duty calls," he said with a sigh of regret, punching a button on the small black box that lay on the seat between them. "Might I beg the use of a telephone?"
He made his call in the privacy of Caroline's study and left immediately after, leaving Laurel feeling a mix of relief and residual tension. She had dreaded the prospect of introducing him to Aunt Caroline and Mama Pearl and having to sit through coffee and conversation. She had escaped that fate, but the tension lingered.
It lingered, still, as she wandered the cobbled paths of the garden in her bare feet. What a nightmare that Vivian saw them as a match.
Even if she had been in top form, Laurel wouldn't have wanted anything to do with him personally. He made her uneasy with those cool green eyes and that smooth drawl that never altered pitch or tempo. He was too composed when she felt as if she were scrambling on the side of a steep hill, scratching for a handhold. He was too intensely male, she supposed.